A walk through an old cemetery can give us a glimpse at the challenges for generations past. Old family plots contain tiny stones marking the arrival and passing of infants, their time on earth even too brief for christening. The potential for hemorrhage or infection made the prospect of another child a source of secret dread for women. Men were endlessly thrown into the blood-red maw of war, succumbing to stress, fatigue, and filth as much as to enemy fire. Pneumonia claimed tired, aged bodies lacking the will or way to defeat bacterial invaders.
Childhood vaccinations, hygiene and increasingly powerful antibiotics have freed us from many senseless deaths. However, modern living has generated its own laundry list of ailments: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease. We slump in front of electronic screens for hours each day. We cheerfully consume excess calories from highly refined flour, cane sugar, and corn syrup. We gobble up fried foods like it was our job, coated in salt and washed down with fruit-free “juices.” We no longer attend to the admonition to eat all our vegetables or even to put some on our plate.
It should not be any sort of surprise that we experience a physiological “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
Feeling well and staying may well involve grabbing ourselves by the scruff of our own necks and giving ourselves a “smarten up” shake. We need to wean ourselves from sugar and salt addictions to help our bodies heal. Our prescription for wellness includes “farmacology,” recommended by nutritionists, doctors and mothers everywhere. A healthy diet is based on mostly fresh, highly colored fruits and vegetables, minimally processed grain products, nuts, and legumes with moderate amounts of meat from pastured animals. We should select fats and oils with healthful volatile fatty acid ratios.
The vendors at the Presque Isle Farmers Market continue to arrive on Saturday mornings to the Aroostook Centre Mall parking lot with about everything you need to eat right. Meat producers offer grass-fed beef, pork, lamb and chicken. At this time of year, small fruits like raspberries and blueberries transition to apples and plums, all delicious and naturally sweet. You will find carrots, summer squash, greens, peppers of many hues, green and yellow beans, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers … the list goes on.
Write yourself a prescription from the “farmacy.” A plethora of delectable fresh food options work well as “a bit of something” in the middle of the day. Scrub them up, slice them up, and enjoy their natural goodness with a bit of healthful dip. Yum — the taste of healthy.
Middle Eastern Hummus
Combine ½ cup of lemon juice, ½ cup of tahini, ¼ cup olive oil, and ¼ cup juice from a 20 oz. can of chickpeas. Thoroughly rinse and drain the remainder of the can.
Mince 3 cloves of garlic and add to a blender or food processor with a small amount of the lemon juice mixture. Blend about 30 seconds. Alternately add chickpeas and lemon juice mixture. Puree until smooth. Add 2 teaspoons cumin and 2 tablespoons minced parsley.
Chill at least 2 hours before serving with sliced vegetables and fruits.
The Presque Isle Farmer’s market’s chair/president for the remainder of the season is Deena Albert-Parks of Chops Ahoy farm in Woodland. For information about participating or visiting the market, contact her at deena.albertparks73@gmail.com.
